William Wilberforce is one of the few that everyone views as a Statesman for his vision and the sacrifices he made to achieve it. He wrote from his vantage point:

The majority of Christians overlook, deny or, at the very least, minimize the problems of what it means to be a fallen human being.

I submit to you that the problem is more universal than Wilberforce wrote. His conclusion applies not only to insincere Christians. It is an issue that everyone of us must recognize, regardless of our religious heritage, and we must deal with if we desire to be the kind of leader our Creator intended. It is this issue that presents a challenge to governance because it impacts both governed and governors. Let us specifically consider how this issue applies to those who govern. What is this fallen nature and how does it impact the governing process? It is expressed quite bluntly, in God’s Word:

There is no one righteous, not even one. There is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God. All have turned away; all alike have become useless. There is no one who does what is good, not even one (Romans 3:10-12).

Our Creator, out of His love, has given us the freedom to choose to obey His clear instructions, or not, in our decisions. All too often, we choose to follow our own desires in defiance of His way. Let us consider how this impacts the government decision-maker who would be a Statesman. Recalling what it means to be a Statesman, one of the many voices has reminded us:

A politician thinks of the next election, a statesman of the next generation. A politician looks for the success of his party; a statesman for that of his country. The statesman wishes to steer, while the politician is satisfied to drift (James Freeman Clarke).

In studying these words, as well as God’s words, we understand what is essential in our effort to operate as a Statesman. There are two natures that battle within our life continuously:

1. a God-sensitive, selfless nature that seeks to obey our Creator to do the good that He desires, and which cares about the needs of the people;
2. a selfish nature willing to collect some personal benefits as a “reasonable” perk of office.

In the definition provided by Clarke, we see clearly what is self-promoting and what is people-promoting in the difference between a Statesman and a politician.

Our Creator described what Wilberforce terms our fallen or sinful nature this way:

The heart is more deceitful than anything else, and incurable—who can understand it? (Jeremiah 17:9)

The battle that this causes within us is described by one servant of God:

For I do not understand what I am doing, because I do not practice what I want to do, but I do what I hate…. So now I am no longer the one doing it, but it is sin living in me. For I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my flesh. For the desire to do what is good is with me, but there is no ability to do it. For I do not do the good that I want to do, but I practice the evil that I do not want to do. Now if I do what I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but it is the sin that lives in me. So I discover this principle: When I want to do what is good, evil is with me (Romans 7:15-21).

This servant of God went even further in describing the battle within:

But I see a different law in the parts of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and taking me prisoner to the law of sin in the parts of my body (Romans 7:23).

The net effect is that my sinful, or selfish, nature overrides any good that my better nature would wish to do:

For the flesh desires what is against the Spirit, and the Spirit desires what is against the flesh; these are opposed to each other, so that you don’t do what you want (Galatians 5:17).

As a result, I am rendered unable to do the good I desire to do. The Statesman must recognize the solution our Creator has provided for us to overcome our sinful nature:

I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me (Galatians 2:19-20).

We must apply Jesus’ sacrificial work on the Cross on our behalf to the issue of the deeds of our sinful nature. This, we must actively and aggressively do. We must actively take advantage of the solution He has provided for us:

If by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live (Romans 8:13).

The key is the phrase “by the Spirit”. We must take advantage of the power of the Spirit of God within us to put to death the deeds of our sinful nature that would misuse the authority of office and deprive it from being used solely for the benefit of the people. It is only when we allow our Creator to put to death the desires of our human nature that literally God and Jesus and His Holy Spirit can operate through us.  This we must do with each and every decision we make – literally, multiple times per day. It is only then that we can operate as our Creator’s instrument, accomplishing what He desires. This is summarized in our Creator’s teaching through another servant:

His divine power has given us everything required for life and godliness through the knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and goodness. By these He has given us very great and precious promises, so that through them you may share in the divine nature, escaping the corruption that is in the world because of evil desires (2 Peter 1:3-4).

It is only as the decision-maker relies on our Creator’s help that one can stop interfering with our Creator’s plan and operate as a Statesman. Of course, this solution can only work if the Spirit of the Living God is within us. This relies on making sure the channel between God and us has been opened by our taking advantage of Jesus’ death for our sinful nature and His resurrection. Jesus made this clear when He said:

I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father except through Me (John 14:6).

The reality is that Jesus’ crucifixion accomplished payment for our disobedience to God that blocked that access channel to God. And Jesus’ resurrection from death confirmed that He accomplished what He promised through His crucifixion. We must make sure we have taken this step in appropriating our Creator’s forgiveness as we seek His help and His power in overcoming our sinful nature in order to be His instrument in the lives we are called to serve. It is essential that we make sure the Spirit of God is within us in order to invoke His Spirit in putting to death our selfish interests.

CONSIDERATION FOR THE STATESMAN:

Have I taken the step to ensure that the Spirit of the Living God is within me in my desire to overcome my selfish nature and to govern as a Statesman?

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Our Creator, the One we know as the God of the universe and the ultimate King over every king, created from one righteous man a nation that was to be a visible model to every other nation of what it means to live in obedience to Him and experience His abundant blessings. The more we get to know our God, the more we are convinced that the blessings promised to that people as a result of obedience to Him are intended to motivate other nations to learn from that obedience and apply that same obedience to God. This raises the question of whether the blessings promised to ancient Israel in response to righteousness and obedience to God apply to other nations that would commit to the same obedience. We have historical evidence of God disciplining nations as a result of their lack of righteousness. God, speaking through His spokesman Jeremiah, tells us:

At one moment I might announce concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will uproot, tear down, and destroy it. However, if that nation I have made an announcement about turns from its evil, I will relent concerning the disaster I had planned to do to it. At another time I announce that I will build and plant a nation or a kingdom. However, if it does what is evil in My sight by not listening to My voice, I will relent concerning the good I had said I would do to it (Jeremiah 18:7-10). 

From this, we learn that God holds each nation accountable for its obedience to His revealed requirements of it. From His character, we know that He has made Himself and His requirement for righteousness known to all mankind. Furthermore, from this passage, we learn that God would prefer to pour out abundant blessings upon a nation – every nation – but that He asks that we place ourselves under obedience to Him.

We learn a lot about God’s mercy from the example of Nineveh, which became the most prosperous city in the ancient world in the eighth century B.C. In the midst of that growing prosperity, God sent His prophet Jonah to Nineveh. We are told that God warned the population:

In 40 days Nineveh will be demolished! (Jonah 3:4)

In response:

The men of Nineveh believed in God. They proclaimed a fast and dressed in sackcloth—from the greatest of them to the least. When word reached the king of Nineveh, he got up from his throne, took off his royal robe, put on sackcloth, and sat in ashes. Then he issued a decree in Nineveh:

By order of the king and his nobles: No man or beast, herd or flock, is to taste anything at all. They must not eat or drink water. Furthermore, both man and beast must be covered with sackcloth, and everyone must call out earnestly to God. Each must turn from his evil ways and from the violence he is doing. Who knows? God may turn and relent; He may turn from His burning anger so that we will not perish. 

Then God saw their actions—that they had turned from their evil ways—so God relented from the disaster He had threatened to do to them. And He did not do it (Jonah 3:5-10).

The king recognized the truth of God’s message through Jonah that they were disobedient to the requirements imposed by God and the king led the people in seeking God’s mercy, while imploring:

Each must turn from his evil ways and from the violence he is doing. 

In response, God extended mercy to the people of Nineveh and not the punishment He had warned. Jonah, the prophet, quickly understood this character of God when he said:

I knew that You are a merciful and compassionate God, slow to become angry, rich in faithful love, and One who relents from sending disaster (Jonah 4:2).

In light of the suffering that exists in our world and in our nations, I believe we must consider whether our disobedience is at the root of our suffering as a nation and that we must lead our people in repentance and appealing to God for mercy. Should we view some of our difficulties as due to our disobedience to God’s clear instructions and then seek His mercy?

During one of the most painful periods in American history – the Civil War – U.S. President Abraham Lincoln issued a call to the people on August 12, 1861 for a day of national repentance and pleading with God for mercy. Included were these words:

Whereas it is fit and becoming in all people, at all times, to acknowledge and revere the Supreme Government of God; to bow in humble submission to His chastisements; to confess and deplore their sins and transgressions in the full conviction that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; and to pray, with all fervency and contrition, for the pardon of their past offences, and for a blessing upon their present and prospective action;

And whereas, when our own beloved Country, once, by the blessing of God, united, prosperous and happy, is now afflicted with faction and civil war, it is peculiarly fit for us to recognize the hand of God in this terrible visitation, and in sorrowful remembrance of our own faults and crimes as a nation and as individuals, to humble ourselves before Him, and to pray for His mercy,—to pray that we may be spared further punishment, though most justly deserved… that the inestimable boon of civil and religious liberty, earned under His guidance and blessing, by the labors and sufferings of our fathers, may be restored in all its original excellence….

I am not in a position to confirm that the outcome of this conflict leading to the nation becoming greater than it had ever been before was due to this action by Lincoln, as previously demonstrated by the King of Nineveh. However, I am convinced that at times of national suffering and uncertainty, we should explore with God whether He desires repentance and a turning away from disobedience and a recognition of the need for greater obedience to Him. Too much is at stake to risk carelessly disregarding our Creator God’s stated requirements and His promises for blessings.

APPLICATION FOR THE STATESMAN:

Do I owe it to the people, whose well-being I am charged with, to ask God if there is behaviour displeasing to Him that is hindering us receiving the full blessing He desires for us?

The post The Statesman Leading in Appealing for Mercy appeared first on CENTRE FOR STATECRAFT.

Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a disgrace to any people (Proverbs 14:34).

We recognize that the Religious Institution must play the leading role in achieving this goal. My intention is for Statesmen to clearly understand the role that the Religious Institution is designed by our Creator to play in building a society receiving God’s abundant blessings.

This Religious Institution universally is named “ecclesia” in the Greek of the New Testament of the Bible, God’s handbook, and is commonly translated “Church”. Our Creator defines the responsibility of the ecclesia as “of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth” (1 Timothy 3:15). Knowing that God is One and that He is unchanging, we know He has an arm within every culture, perhaps by a different name, intended to serve as His “pillar and foundation of the truth”. The requirements for the “ecclesia” are clearly laid out and define the role our Creator intends for the Religious Institution in our nations.

The Religious Institution plays a critical role in society on such a journey because we as human beings have difficulty in understanding and approaching our God who cannot be easily comprehended using our five senses with which we approach the seen world. The Religious Institution has the essential responsibility to impart knowledge of the character of our Creator and His expectations for us from His revealed instructions to us in the Bible.

This knowledge of God is necessary for the intimate friendship with God which must support obedience to God. Within that essential body of knowledge is the truth that God created mankind to enjoy friendship with Him, which is foundational to enjoying His full blessings. This friendship includes a quality of life that satisfies every need of the human heart. Jesus said:

I came that they have life and have it abundantly (John 10:10).

The author of the book of John within God’s instruction manual, the Bible, includes this insight:

… these are written so that you may believe Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and by believing you may have life in His name (John 20:31).

“By believing, you may have life in His name.” It is only through believing that we can have life. And we know that it is intended that every member of our society should have this life.
Hence, God has built within us a hunger for Himself – a hunger for God that we need to embrace and that we must encourage our fellow sojourners to embrace as well. The French mathematician Blaise Pascal summarized it:

There is a God-shaped vacuum in the heart of each man which cannot be satisfied by any created thing, but only by God the Creator made known through Jesus Christ.

It is this hunger that the religious leadership must encourage for every member and to ensure is met within every member of society. Those serving in the Religious Institution must ensure this teaching to every member of society. No one should be overlooked. We should be an encourager to everyone to seek a relationship with God for themselves. Jesus emphasized our need with this teaching:

What man among you, who has 100 sheep and loses one of them, does not leave the 99 in the open field and go after the lost one until he finds it? (Luke 15:4)

This requires teaching, modeling, persuading – making every conceivable effort so that every member in society may participate in and embrace the righteousness of God that will be a blessing for our nations. Furthermore, there must be a continual spiritual re-invigoration in the life of each member of society. This is not simply a once-in-a-lifetime spiritual invigoration, but must happen every day. God describes the process this way:

If…My people who are called by My name humble themselves, pray and seek My face, and turn from their evil ways, then I will hear from heaven, forgive their sin, and heal their land (2 Chronicles 7:14).

This is made all the more relevant by the fact that, in my understanding, there is not a single nation in the world where the Religious Institution is fulfilling the clear mandate God has given the ‘ecclesia’. As such, every nation and every people is missing out on the wonderful blessings God has promised to those who would obey Him and live in partnership with Him. Hence, we must begin by repenting and embracing the truth from our Creator.

Then we must continually allow our lives to experience this invigoration. This must happen on an ongoing basis. Through knowledge of God through studying His Word the Bible, He has given us the tools to fulfill this righteousness. It is literally Jesus living through us. God described it:

… He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son… (Romans 8:29).

Our Creator intended that our societies be made up of those who have embraced the character of Jesus Christ through His essential help. The Religious Institution must teach each member the practical aspects of loving and obeying God and overcoming our selfish aspirations that interfere with this:

I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me (Galatians 2:19-20).

We must be continually reminded to apply the truth:

If by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live (Romans 8:13).

As a result of this relationship with God and His living through us, He elaborated on the qualities that would result in our lives:

The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, gentleness, self-control (Galatians 5:22-23).

These nine characteristics are the result of allowing God to have His reign in our lives.
When Jesus was asked by religious leaders “What is the greatest commandment from God?”, He answered:

Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and most important command. The second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets depend on these two commands (Matthew 23: 37-40).

This summarizes what our Creator expects of us. Notice that, as a result of loving God, we will be able to love ourselves as a special creation of our God, and, furthermore, we will be able to love others with whom our lives interact. The impact upon society is clear. Our person-to-person interactions will automatically reflect this reality.

It is not enough that we have knowledge about God. It must become intimate knowledge of God that is the basis for friendship with Him. It is essential that this friendship with our Creator serve as the basis for our obedience.

More than teaching obedience to God, the Religious Institution must model this obedience to God. The religious leadership must put aside any personal ambition for importance and pour themselves out in service to the people as servants, recognizing that they will receive eternal rewards for their earthly sacrifice. Those in leadership must view their roles as shepherds, nurturing the sheep as their primary responsibility. Leaders must be less concerned about their own importance within the religious community or within society than in serving. The issue was made clear to me one time when I was discussing this with a Foreign Minister. He described “If I were to walk into a gathering of religious leaders and you were to ask someone, ‘Who is the politician in the group?’, they would point to everyone else but me.” The religious leaders must recognize their need to selflessly serve their Master and the sheep for whom they have been given responsibility. Then and only then will they hear God’s commendation:

Well done, good and faithful servant (Matthew 25:21).

The end result is that we will learn to obey the One who is our best friend: Almighty God. As we take each step of obedience, it becomes clearer and clearer that we have done the correct thing and that we have strengthened our friendship with God, whose friendship is our richest treasure for all eternity. As this friendship and obedience is embraced throughout all of society, it will include those who are in Religious Institution, but also Family and Government. As this becomes prevalent throughout the nation, the nation will experience our Creator’s promise:

Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a disgrace to any people (Proverbs 14:34).

What is the Responsibility of leaders within Government?

1. As members of potentially all three institutions (Family, Religious, Government), we must lead the way in obeying our Creator in everything we do.
2. As Government decision-makers, we must avoid impeding the essential work of the Religious Institution, either through law passed or actions taken.
3. We must set an example for servanthood that will hopefully be contagious to everyone in every area of society.

The post The Role of the Religious Institution in National Obedience appeared first on CENTRE FOR STATECRAFT.

We recently made the argument that our Lord has designed and set up His creation in such a way that those who operate within His creation need His instruction in order to be able to do so effectively. Of immediate interest to us is the application of this truth to the institution of Government.

God warns humanity, beginning with the decision-makers:

Woe to those who go to great lengths to hide their plans from the LORD. They do their works in darkness, and say, “Who sees us? Who knows us?” You have turned things around, as if the potter were the same as the clay. How can what is made say about its maker, “He didn’t make me”? How can what is formed say about the one who formed it, “He doesn’t understand what he’s doing”? (Isaiah 29:15-16)

and–

Woe to the rebellious children! This is the LORD’s declaration. They carry out a plan, but not Mine. (Isaiah 30:1)

We are warned that we cannot intuit or speculate on His plans when Almighty God Himself says:

“For My thoughts are not your thoughts, and your ways are not My ways.” This is the LORD’s declaration. “For as heaven is higher than earth, so My ways are higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isaiah 55:8-9)

Clearly, He expects us to be dependent upon Him for His wisdom and guidance. He makes clear that He will not abandon us to navigate His creation by ourselves. God makes the powerful promise to us:

I will instruct you and show you the way to go; with My eye on you, I will give counsel. (Psalm 32:8)

God speaks to us clearly if we will listen:

For God speaks time and again, but a person may not notice it. (Job 33:14)

By Myself I have sworn; Truth has gone from My mouth, a word that will not be revoked: (Isaiah 45:23)

We must make sure that we listen. He speaks to us in a quiet voice directly as we listen for His voice. Jesus illustrated this as He used the analogy of Himself as the shepherd and us as His sheep:

My sheep hear My voice, I know them, and they follow Me. (John 10:27)

The sheep are special in that they listen intently for His voice and when He speaks, they are able to hear it. Let us also remember that our ability to hear His voice is dependent upon our willingness to obey Him without reservation.

And He speaks to us through His Word. The psalmist, under God’s inspiration, reminds us several times in Psalm 119 alone:

How happy are those whose way is blameless, who live according to the LORD’s instruction! Happy are those who keep His decrees and seek Him with all their heart. (Psalm 119:1-2)

Open my eyes so that I may contemplate wonderful things from Your instruction. I am a stranger on earth; do not hide Your commands from me. (Psalm 119:18-19)

Your word is a lamp for my feet and a light on my path. (Psalm 119:105)

Finally, we are admonished to remember to recognize our need for His wisdom and to ask Him for it:

Now if any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives to all generously and without criticizing, and it will be given to him. (James 1:5)

Let us pause for a moment to reflect on the application to our lives and actions.

If we were to ask our Creator and Lord with every decision we make what He would have us to do, who would be operating through our life? Clearly, it would be our Master. This would allow us to say as President Lincoln said:

In the very responsible position in which I happen to be placed, being a humble instrument in the hands of our Heavenly Father, as I am.

and–

I hold myself in my present position and with the authority vested in me as an instrument of Providence.

Literally, we would be able to say with Lincoln that we are His instrument in His hands.

This is the insight that I am convinced produced a Statesman that we can all look to today.

PERSONALIZING: Is this a step we are willing to take?

The post The Statesman Recognizes the Need to Operate in Accord with the Instructions of the Creator-Designer – Part 2 appeared first on CENTRE FOR STATECRAFT.

We each step into a complex world ‒ because of your responsibilities, especially you! The truth is that the creation was set up with the need for the Creator’s instruction and guidance in order to be able to operate optimally within His creation. Here we have the problem sometimes described this way: If you came across an electrical device but its purpose and what it could do was not clear, but at the same time, you knew who the engineer was who created it, what would you do? Obviously, you would go to that engineer and ask him. The analogy here is with a Creator who designed a system that we cannot understand in our own wisdom. The only One who truly understands it is the Creator.

He explained to us that He designed His creation with a plan:

Have you not heard? I designed it long ago; I planned it in days gone by. (Isaiah 37:26)

This is the LORD’s declaration — For I know the plans I have for you — plans for your welfare, not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. (Jeremiah 29:11)

And yet, He reminds us that we cannot possibly discern those plans without His guidance:

For My thoughts are not your thoughts, and your ways are not My ways. For as heaven is higher than earth, so My ways are higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts. (Isaiah 55:8-9)

The answer is His appeal to us:

Call to Me and I will answer you and tell you great and incomprehensible things you do not know. (Jeremiah 33:3)

God continually reminds us: “You need Me. You are lost without Me.”

God told Abraham’s son Isaac the secret of Abraham’s success:

… because Abraham listened to My voice and kept My mandate, My commands, My statutes, and My instructions. (Genesis 26:4-5)

Notice that God intimately linked obedience to four items: “My mandate, My commands, My statutes, and My instructions.” Abraham benefited by obedience to all four. We must conclude that we can benefit from His instructions when we commit ourselves to obey “My mandate, My commands, My statutes, and My instructions.”

This helps us to understand as God clarified how this would apply to governance before ancient Israel’s first head of government was installed:

When [the King] is seated on his royal throne, he is to write a copy of this instruction for himself on a scroll in the presence of the Levitical priests. It is to remain with him, and he is to read from it all the days of his life, so that he may learn to fear the LORD his God, to observe all the words of this instruction, and to do these statutes (Deuteronomy 17:18- 19).

Notice the three intended results:

• Learn to fear the LORD his (our) God
• Observe (obey) all the words of this instruction
• Do these statutes

God made clear that what He was conveying were His instructions. And He made clear that the key was to focus our minds on God’s instructions and to obey them.

As Joshua was installed to replace Moses in the leadership of his people, notice the heavy emphasis on instruction God gave him:

Above all, be strong and very courageous to carefully observe the whole instruction My servant Moses commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right or the left, so that you will have success wherever you go. This book of instruction must not depart from your mouth; you are to recite it day and night so that you may carefully observe everything written in it. For then you will prosper and succeed in whatever you do (Joshua 1:7-8).

In both of these instructions, we repeatedly are told to “observe”, i.e., to obey.

I have confidence in our Creator’s ability to give us everything we need to navigate His creation if we will do this in dependence upon Him for His guidance. Let me share briefly how this worked in my own life, although in a context different than your own. Out of humble beginnings, I view myself as among the last in the United States to begin school in a one-room schoolhouse. As such, my prospects were limited. However, as I followed my dreams, one door after another opened for me. Finally, I found myself in the laboratory of the greatest brain scientist who has ever lived. In parallel, I was also learning to listen to God and obey Him. I found that the more I attempted to obey God and adhere to His instructions, the more understanding I was given into an aspect of His creation: the function of the brain. Although I left that field 40+ years ago as a young man, the scientific discoveries I was privileged to experience are still quoted and being built upon by the following generation of brain scientists. I consider this to be amazing in light of the fast pace at which the scientific frontier advances. I remain convinced that the secret to unlocking the mystery of His creation lies in committing to His instruction book. I believe this principle applies in every area of human endeavor. It is certainly true in governance.

In reality, what may be considered obedience to God’s commands is simply our recognition of the need to follow His instructions.

Let us each seek to operate as His instrument by committing ourselves to “His mandate, His commands, His statutes, and His instructions.”

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a. Compassion toward the people, especially the most disadvantaged

King Solomon provides a good example. Early in his reign when he clearly had the heart of a statesman, he said to His Creator (paraphrasing and transposing from the third person to the first):

I will rescue the poor who cry out and the afflicted who have no helper. I will have pity on the poor and helpless and save the lives of the poor. I will redeem them from oppression and violence, for their lives are precious in my sight. (Psalms 72:12-14)

What is especially captivating is Solomon’s attitude toward the people he was governing ─ for their lives are precious in my sight. What an amazing attitude this is for any governing official ─ to view the lives of the powerless, those without a voice, those taken advantage of by the more powerful in society, those who cannot help him/her politically ─ as precious in his/her sight. Truly, exercising the authority invested in office on behalf of these people is to be an instrument of Almighty God.

We gain additional insight by studying his preceding words:

God, give Your justice to me the king and Your righteousness to me. I will judge Your people with righteousness and Your afflicted ones with justice… May I vindicate the afflicted among the people, help the poor, and crush the oppressor. (Psalms 72:1-2,4)

Solomon expressed a concern of his heart for those who are weak and generally taken advantage of and ignored by those in Government. Too often, the powerless have come to view Government as an ‘oppressor’. Not only did Solomon not want to be an oppressor, but he wanted to use his authority to aggressively prevent any other oppression ─ in his words to “crush the oppressor”.

In looking at the lives of statesmen, there is willingness to listen to the hearts of the constituents. I have always been amazed at Abraham Lincoln’s “open door” policy to his office, whereby each morning, he allowed people to meet him without an appointment. Winston Churchill visited people whose homes were destroyed by the German rockets. Both leaders stayed close to the people. They were not afraid to allow people to get in the way of “more important affairs of State”. After all, they understood that “people” are the purpose of the State.

b. The attitude of a shepherd in meeting the needs of the sheep

God paints the picture of the head of the nation as a shepherd. God uses the analogy of the shepherd to describe the tender care that governing officials must have for the people.

For example–

“God…who says to Cyrus: My shepherd, he will fulfill all My pleasure” (Isaiah 44:24,28). Cyrus II was King of Persia 559-530 B.C. As in the case of Cyrus, the determination as shepherd has nothing to do with what the official thinks of God. In the extended passage, God said twice of Cyrus: “though you do not know Me” (Isaiah 45:5).

Hence, ‘shepherd’ is an overview of the job description of the work God expects of the Government official. In the case of King David, God tells us that:

He chose David His servant and took him from the sheepfolds; He brought him from tending ewes to be shepherd over His people…. He shepherded them with a pure heart and guided them with his skillful hands. (Psalms 78:70-72)

The shepherd is responsible for the welfare of the sheep and for anticipating and overcoming the threats to the sheep. There are two implications:

1. Relatively speaking, the sheep are ignorant of the threats to their safety and limited in their ability to meet their own needs. The sheep are dependent upon the shepherd and his/her diligence for their safety. It is the needs of the sheep that drive every action of the shepherd. Realistically, it is the sheep who are the masters and the shepherds who are the servants.
2. Furthermore, the shepherd has responsibility for all of the sheep, not just the ones who may have chosen this individual as shepherd. Once the shepherd is placed in responsibility for the flock, he/she does not have the privilege of distinguishing the level of care provided for different sheep within the flock. The shepherd may not be selective in which sheep he/she cares for. In fact, the responsible shepherd must often give more attention to serve the most difficult and the neediest sheep.

It was against the backdrop of this, that I learned that an incumbent presidential candidate warned voters from a group resisting his leadership during the campaign “If you do not vote for me, do not expect that you will get anything from me.” The incumbent had not learned the lesson of his being a shepherd to his flock. Fortunately, upon victory, he relented from that threat.

Nelson Mandela, in his autobiography Long Walk to Freedom, correctly uses the analogy of shepherding to describe the governing process.

God warns against the evil or irresponsible shepherds:

This is what the Lord GOD says to the shepherds: Woe to the shepherds …, who have been feeding themselves! Shouldn’t the shepherds feed their flock? (Ezekiel 34:2)

God has high standards for those who shepherd on His behalf. He has little tolerance for those mistreat our Master’s sheep.

God’s Admonition to Shepherds through His servant:

I exhort the elders among you: shepherd God’s flock among you, not overseeing out of compulsion but freely, according to God’s will; not for the money but eagerly; not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock. And when the chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory. (1 Peter 5:1-4)

The analogy is with God as the Chief Shepherd and ourselves as His under-shepherds. As such, we certainly need His help in being the shepherds He intends us to be. Returning to an earlier discussion, Psalms 23 begins with the words “The Lord is my shepherd.” I submit to you that we must allow Him to be our shepherd before we can be His shepherd in the lives of the sheep He has entrusted us with.

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